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It was K. T. Rama Rao, the Minister for Information Technology, State Government of Telangana's vision to build Hyderabad into one of the best startup ecosystem in the world. It led him to setup T-Hub in 2014, through a public-private partnership with institutes like International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad (IIIT Hyderabad), Indian School of Business (ISB) and National Academy of Legal Studies and Research (NALSAR).

Since T-Hub's inception, the number of start-ups in the city has increased by 10-fold and co-working places are doing roaring business, claims the organization's COO Srinivas Kollipara.

He broadly divides the organization's activities into three divisions and the first one being the incubation center. T-hub swanks of hosting the largest incubator in the country with 70,000 sqft campus which home to more than 140 startups and is now planning to take the initiative to the next level by increasing the facility's space to nearly 3lakh sqft wherein the centre will try to take leading position in emerging technologies of the future such as audio reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), artificial intelligence (AI) and smart mobility.

The second division is the corporate innovation, where T-hub organizes hackathons as Kollipara feels large corporates are really interested in innovation and want to be in touch with startups, both for sourcing solutions as well as energizing their workforce.

"We are now curating programs to help large corporate to source innovation, solve challenges and all other entrepreneurship pieces. We have worked with companies like Intel, Samsung, Yes Bank, Qualcomm, United Technologies and many others." In fact, as a part of the corporate innovation program, T-hub recently partnered with Boeing for a three-month customized accelerator programme, which focuses on supporting early-stage start-ups operating in the aerospace industry.

As the Telangana chapter grows, T-hub is also looking forward to helping international start-ups grow their India business. "We can help these startups localize their products along with other processes which would open doors, so they can get more customers and revenue," he added.

However, T-hub has not limited its operating to the city of pearls or its home state. Kollipara indicated that the organization is now officially helping states like Goa, Assam, Delhi and a few others to build an early stage ecosystem.

"The states have to figure out what is that region will be known for or what your city to going to be best at. In Hyderabad, for example, healthcare was a natural fit. We have a bunch of pharma companies, biotechnology companies and so you get mentors from there with investors who have interest in innovation. So, we picked up fey key areas like healthcare, agriculture, smart cities, sustainability, etc." he shared.

To know more about T-hub and its initiatives, you can watch the attached video.